Safe in their "Forever Family"....

Gepubliceerd op 26 juni 2019 06:03

This is a pictures of 31 Ugandan families, who all are fostering 1 or 2 children via Amecet. It is so exciting, read this story below and meet some of the children.... For quite some years we try to find Ugandan foster families, who want to take in a child without any relatives, and are willing to adopt that child in the future. The process is all done via the Probation Officer (Child protection), there are forms to fill, interviews done and their home is inspected by the Probation Officer. At the end the Magistrate of the Court grant the family a Care order to foster the child and the Probation Officer comes to Amecet to hand the child officially to their new family. This is such a joyous moment, a child that was abandoned or rejected by their own relatives has hope of a future and they belong to a family and they are wanted!!

The Foster time is around one year (was three years) and after that foster time, the family needs to apply for the official adoption. And that is where the problems come, this needs a Lawyer and there is a lot of paper work and it costs money, which is the problem for many families. They have to sell cows or land and that is something they don't do easily. The children are doing well, they go to school, they get the proper feeding and they are dressed and treated when they are sick, but still the child is not safe..... When there would happen something to the father, the family clan could just send the child away and the clan will then take the land back into the family. There is no legal inheritance for the child, no legal status. This was for a long time on our hearts, how could we help these children and their families??? Then there came an opportunity from an organization from the Netherlands, Metterdaad, part of the Christian Broadcast station E.O., we explained the situation and they were willing to help with the finances!!!!

We found a lawyer, who is going to help us with all the legal issues and who we pay from the funds we received from Metterdaad. Last week we got the first group of 31 families. Simon, our social Worker had, visited all the families before, to explain what was going on and to invite them to come with their children to Amecet, to meet the lawyer and to discuss the adoption.

I like you to meet some of those children and their families:

This is Robinson, he came in Amecet as a baby of 3 weeks in September 2005. His mother tried to strangle him and was admitted in the psychiatric ward. After some months he was reunited with his mother, she seemed to be better and she came to Amecet every week to see us and to check if Robinson was okay. But is didn't go well and she abandoned Robinson under a tree and left, she is never seen again... Robinson came back to Amecet, sick and we tried to trace for any relatives of the mother. But because of the many lies she had told us, we couldn't find anyone, nobody reacted on the ads in the newspaper and there seemed nobody who was interested in this little boy....Until a family showed up at our doorstep, they wanted to adopt a child..... This was in 2006, by that time there were not many Ugandan families who wanted to adopt a child, the paper work was done, the interviews were held and Robinson went to stay with his new family who was so happy to have him!!!!!! And Robinson became one of our first local adopted children!! He is now almost 13 years old (picture right).

There is a family who adopted two children via Amecet. The parents are both teachers and we are so happy that two of our children found a loving, forever family with them:

October 2016, baby Grace was brought to Amecet as a 2 days old baby. The mother had passed away after giving birth. The baby was born pre-mature and the umbilical cord was infected. But she started to drink well and gained quickly., After 3 months the baby went back to her family. We started to receive phone calls, if we could take the baby back, she was not doing well, other people started to tell us the same. We went to check on her tried to talk to the family, but they didn't want to care for baby Grace, we went back again and decided to take Grace back, she was sick and we feared for her life. We went back several times to talk with the family but they wrote a clan letter that nobody was able to care for Grace and that they gave her up for adoption. Little Grace (on the middle in the picture) is now almost 3 years old and a very happy cute little girl.

Cissy, (the girl at the right) was adopted by the same family, but in 2018. Cissy was 11 years old. She was kidnapped in 2014 from the Teso region into another far district. She stayed there for 4 years and was now brought back to Teso. She knew that both of her parents had died, she had stayed with her grandmother, but she didn't know where... Posters were hanged and newspaper ads with her picture, but no one reacted on it. Some time later the family who adopted Grace was willing to adopt Cissy as well. It goes very well with her, she has some problems with going to school, she was not used to that, but with two parents who are teachers, she has not much choice....

These are the twins William (left) and Augustine. They were abandoned in the hospital by their mentally ill mother. The mother cared for William, but Augustine was too much for her. Via the Probation Office they came in Amecet in March 2013. With medical care, good food and lots of love they picked up. Our Social Workers found the relatives of the mother, but they were not willing to care for them. The community and their leaders recommended adoption for them. They were around 3 years old. A family was found who wanted to foster both boys and today they are happy boys, going to school and are a blessing to their parents!

These are just some of the 31 children who came last week, a second group will follow, when this first group is finished. The lawyer is doing the legal work and will come back to finalize everything. Then there will be a date in Court, where the Judge looks at all the papers and the families and hopefully will grant the adoptions. We are so thankful that all the children are doing well and their families are happy with them and very grateful for the help we could get for them via Metterdaad.